Dallas Mavericks Blog

Mavs’ last play a thing of beauty

The Mavericks had 0.4 seconds to make a play and it took perfect execution, not to mention some misplayed defense by Houston, for them to come out of the final preseason game with a 97-96 victory.

“It was a perfect play,” said Shawn Marion. “Somebody left me and I curled around and the pass was right where it had to be. It was in the air forever, but it came right where it should have been.”

That’s because Jason Kidd was doing the throwing. He lobbed the pass over 7-6 Yao Ming from about 40 feet away on the left sideline. Actually, the ball almost looked like it went between Yao’s upraised hands.

“We got lucky because the ball was out of bounds (on the previous play),” coach Rick Carlisle said. “Kidd threw a tremendous pass and put just the right amount of air under it. And Shawn finished it off.”

Said Kidd: “Coach drew up a great play. Everybody knows the ball’s coming to Dirk in those situations. But once I saw Shawn get around Dirk, he was wide-open and my job was to get the ball over Yao. I had to get up a little higher, but it worked out.”

The Mavericks finished the preseason 4-4 and will get a well-deserved day off Saturday before going back to work on Sunday.